A 130V or heavy-duty design bulb will almost certainly solve the problem unless there is an actual problem in the fixture or circuit itself (which we can't tell from here).
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16 years ago
Light bulb keep on burning out
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16 years ago
[snip]
I notice that all (or almost al) traffic signals around here use LED arrays.
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16 years ago
The contact at the bottom of the socket is designed to act as a spring to keep good contact between it and the lamp. They certainly can become flat and lack that spring action and then with the expansion and contraction of temperature changes you can get poor connections and arcing causing problems. The advice not to _over_tighten is valid and should be followed.
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16 years ago
In , AZ Nomad wrote in part:
I have caused this problem myself many years ago. Not all sockets are made so that the tab is stopped from moving further by socket structure before it is out of reach of some or many lightbulbs.
There is another thing to chek for: The tab may be corroded. Arcing may corrode the tip contact of lightbulbs. Sometimes the corrosion is easy enough to scrub off with fine sandpaper (with the breaker off - verify that flipping the breaker on and off turns that socket on and off).
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
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16 years ago
130V, superlonglife and inductrial/shock/vibration duty incandescents also produce less light for the amount of electricity consumed than "standard" incandescents, generally 15-25% less. Use CFLs where you can.
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
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16 years ago
Hey Mr. Bullshit, check
formatting link
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16 years ago
...
They'll solve OP's problem though, which was the point of the posting.
I personally can't stand the fluorescent light where I want incandescent, efficiency or no efficiency. That's me, though and I'll be the first to admit to being an old fogey...
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16 years ago
In forty years? Yes.
The technology is far older and unchanging because it works, is cheap, and there's little reason to change it. You don't have a tab hanging in mid air to contact the lightbulb.
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16 years ago
Why don't you take a reading comprehension course? The article states that if you don't tighten the socket, the bulb can ark and the solder at the base OF THE BULB can melt. It doesn't state that there is anything wrong with tightening the bulb fully or that you should leave it a little loose. It states quite the opposite.
"You will quickly notice that the bottom of most light bulbs has a small droplet of solder in the center of the base. More importantly the size of this drop of solder is not consistent from light bulb to light bulb. It is close in size, but not always the same size or height.
If the brass tab at the base of the socket does not make firm contact with the bottom of the light bulb, a small electrical arc can happen that starts to melt the solder. Over a period of time, the solder can deform and the gap between the solder and the brass tab gets larger."
The rest of the article repeats the idiotic advice of reaching in and bending the tab. It is a non-sequitir. Pulling the tab away from the bottom of the socket will result in a poorer connection.
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16 years ago
Because it's never happened to you, it must be impossible, eh?
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16 years ago
Sure, that's a typical circuit: refrigerator, *one* light fixture, and nothing else. Uh-huh.
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16 years ago
HOO BOY!!!
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16 years ago
... unless you do!
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16 years ago
While I have seen such a circuit more than once, especially with freezers, where owners want to make sure the power is still on, I did not indicate both the lamp and the frig on the same circuit, but rather paired on opposite legs of two circuits sharing a neutral. My answer would also apply if many other items were on that same circuit pair, but if the other devices were not sensitive to voltage swings or were not high amp users.
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16 years ago
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I have 20 years on you and maybe in the next twenty you will see it, I have.
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16 years ago
Guess again, pal. It *does* happen, and just because you've never seen it, does *not* mean that it can't happen.
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16 years ago
Maybe you oughta stick to topics on which you have some actual knowledge. Bending the tab away from the bottom of the socket results in a *better* connection, not worse.
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16 years ago
Oh, yeah, that's even *more* common. Uh-huh. Keep reaching.
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16 years ago
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I find Joseph's idea entirely reasonable. His original post was "say with" - an illustration. There are lots of possibilities of 2 circuits with loose common neutral. Like 2 general purpose circuits with a light on one and a heater on the other. Doesn't have to be only a light on one circuit, just that the light be all that is on, or as Joseph wrote, all that is sensitive.
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16 years ago
Jeff Wisnia posted for all of us...
They are "Traffic Signal Bulbs" believe it or not. Also used in airway obstruction lights such as towers, chimneys. Rated for 3000 hours iirc